Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita- Discourse 6.4. - Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Teusiday,January  05, 2021. 04:01. PM.

Discourse 6: The Third Chapter Begins – The Relation Between Sankhya and Yoga -4.

Post-4.

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The restlessness that we undergo in this world, and the pains that we suffer from, are the premises from which we can draw a conclusion that this is not a happy state of affairs and there must be a state of affairs which transcends this miserable state of existence. That we do not like to undergo pain of any kind, that we do not want to die, that we do not want any kind of sorrow, is a premise from which we can draw the conclusion that we are in a position to conceive the state where there is no sorrow, no pain of any kind, and not even death.

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Thus, the prerogative of the human reason is that it is able to draw conclusions which far transcend ordinary sense perception. The senses cannot tell us that there is a possibility of the immortality of the soul. They can only tell us if there is an object of sense outside. But reason is not supposed to always play second fiddle to the sense organs. We have a higher reason and a lower reason. It is the higher reason that draws such conclusions which are capable of lifting us up from the ordinary experiences of life and enables us to have some premonition of the higher existences. The reason tells us that there is a possibility of attaining immortality. But the lower mind is completely conditioned by the sense organs. It is instinctive, and many a time we behave like animals when only the lower mind is predominant and is completely under the charge of the sense organs.

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So we have two aspects of nature—the higher and the lower. In the Sixth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita we are told that the higher Self should rule the lower self. “The Self is the friend of the self and the Self is the enemy of the self” is what we are told in the Sixth Chapter. Which Self is the friend of which self, and which Self is the enemy of which self?

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The higher Self enables the higher reason to infer immortal possibilities; the lower self is pure mentation and individuality. The higher Self is the friend of the lower self only if our instinctive action and our sensory activity are based on the inferences drawn by the higher reason. That is, in our daily activity we should not behave like unspiritual people. Even in the marketplace, our behaviour should be spiritual. Our higher Self should condition our lower mind which is purchasing vegetables in the market or going to the railway station, etc. It does not mean that we become different persons under different conditions. If this lower mind, which is the jivatva, is not able to accommodate itself with the demands of the higher reason which says that there is a possibility of immortal existence, then the higher Self becomes the enemy of the lower self—just as the law protects those who obey it but can be the enemy of an individual who disobeys it.

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To be continued ..

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